ABSTRACT
There are many ways that being with an other can be experienced, including some of the most widely used clinical concepts, such as merging, fusion, a haven of safety, a security base, the holding environment, symbiotic states, self-objects, transitional phenomena, and cathected objects. The sense of being with an other with whom we are interacting can be one of the most forceful experiences of social life. In one sense, the infant is seen as totally social in this view. The infant achieves total sociability by not differentiating self from other. In contrast to these views, the present account has stressed the very early formation of a sense of a core self and core other during the life period that other theories allot to prolonged self/other undifferentiation. Both infant and caregiver also regulate the infant's attention, curiosity, and cognitive engagement with the world. The caregiver's mediation greatly influences the infant's sense of wonder and avidity for exploration.
